Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to explain the agency procedure for reporting retroactive rate increases and adjustments for miscellaneous earnings.

Affected Employees

CUNY employees in the title of Maintenance Worker are affected.

Background

The rate increases are pursuant to a Consent Determination entered and filed on August 6, 2020 between the Comptroller of the City of New York and the City Employees Union Local 237 IBT for retroactive increases for employees in the title of Maintenance Worker.  This determination covers the period December 17, 2017 through January 1, 2022.

The agreement provides for retroactive increase of the hourly rate effective December 17, 2017, January 17, 2018, December 17, 2018, October 17, 2019 and March 17, 2020.

The revised rate chart and additional information are contained in a memorandum from Carmelo Batista, Jr. dated September 2, 2020.

Effective Dates

Increases may be submitted in Pay Period 18C (Institution), paychecks date 12/3/2020. 

Eligibility Criteria

Employees eligible to receive retroactive increases are CUNY employees in the title of Maintenance Worker.

OSC Actions

OSC will review the manually entered Job Action Requests and approve salary increases based on the approved salary chart.

Agency Actions

Reporting the Rate Increases

To ensure all Job Action requests are submitted for each employee, the agency must submit requests in effective date order from oldest date to current date.  For example, if appropriate, submit the 12/17/2017 Pay Change, followed by the Pay Changes to any subsequent rows.

To increase hourly rate(s), the agency must submit the following requests regardless of the employee’s status:

• For all rate increases, request a Pay Change with the Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Chg/CRT (Pay Rate Change/Change Rate) on the Job Action Request page, using the effective date of the appropriate increase, and submit the new hourly rate.
• A separate request must be made for each of the rows that exist on the employee’s Job Data page, using the next available sequence number.

Reporting Retroactive Adjustments for All Miscellaneous Earnings

The agency must calculate and report the retroactive adjustment for all miscellaneous earnings.

The Time Entry Earnings Code AJR must be used to report the combined retroactive adjustment for all miscellaneous earnings.  The agency must provide an explanation of the adjustment in the General Comments page or on a separate worksheet.  If the agency uses a worksheet, the worksheet must be received in OSC’s Payroll Earnings mailbox by the submission deadline for Pay Period 18C.

The Earnings Code AJR must be reported as follows:

Agency Actions – Earnings

Processing Automatic Retroactive Adjustments

Provided the agency appropriately submits the applicable increases, OSC will automatically process the retroactive adjustments for all “regular hours”, RGH, and “miscellaneous earnings” of LSL, LT3 and PLB, paid to an employee regardless of the employee’s status. The agency should refer to the AJR procedure above to submit retroactive adjustments for all other “Miscellaneous Earnings”.

General Deductions

Deduction Information for Inactive Employees

All general deductions for employees whose Payroll Status is Terminated, Retired or Deceased will be automatically cancelled by OSC with the exception of percentage based union dues and the following:

Tax Information

These monies are taxable income and are subject to all employment taxes and income taxes.  These monies will be included in the employee’s taxable gross and will be reported on the employee’s Form W-2.

The adjustments (AJR and Retro (RXX)) are supplemental taxable income, and Federal, State and New York City income tax withholding will be calculated using the Aggregate method. Yonkers income tax withholding will be calculated using the Flat Rate method (1.61135% for Yonkers residents and 0.50% for Yonkers non-residents).

Payroll Register and Employee’s Paycheck/Advice

All retroactive adjustments will be displayed on the Payroll Register using the appropriate Earnings Code and the amount paid and will be displayed on the employee’s paycheck stub or direct deposit advice using the appropriate Earnings Description and the amount paid unless the number of earnings codes exceeds 13. 

Agencies should utilize LQ_PCD_PAYCHECK_EARNINGS_BY_ID to identify a complete list of regular earnings and retroactive adjustments if there are more than 13 earnings codes.

Undeliverable Checks

When a valid payroll check is undeliverable due to the agency’s inability to locate the employee, the agency should follow the Agency Actions identified in Payroll Bulletin No. 1786 Non-Negotiated and/or Undeliverable New York State Payroll Checks.

Checks issued to eligible employees who are now deceased should be returned with a completed Next of Kin Affidavit (Form AC 934-P), original death certificate and a Report of Check Exchange (Form AC 1476-P).  If a Next of Kin Affidavit has been previously submitted for a deceased employee’s payroll check, OSC will accept a photocopy of this form along with a new Report of Check Exchange.

Questions

Questions regarding eligibility for CUNY Skilled Trades Maintenance Worker pay rate increase may be directed to the University Manager of Payroll Systems and Operations at CUNY Central Office.

Questions regarding transactions may be directed to the Payroll Earnings mailbox.

Questions regarding Deductions may be directed to the Payroll Deduction mailbox.

Questions regarding Taxes may be directed to the Tax and Compliance mailbox.